Fisker's sexy Karma hybrid will begin production on March 21 and ship to customers soon thereafter. (Source: Fisker Automotive)

Fisker appears back on track and following in the footsteps of Tesla

For better or worse Tesla Motors Inc. pretty
much provided the blueprint of how to start a successful electric vehicle company
-- have wealthy donors fund an initial corporate launch; gather venture
capital; seek government grants and loans; launch your vehicle;achieve
profitability;launch
an IPOto raise more capital; use government loans and venture capital to
make thejump
to large production numbersif desired.

Fisker Automotive seems to be following a similar
path to success, though its road has been a bit rockier. Now with the
impending launch of the sleek Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid electric vehicle
(PHEV), let's take a look at the past present and future of this company and
its flagship vehicle.

I. Hype and Inflated Expectations

Fisker, much like Tesla was founded by an iconic
figure. While Elon Musk built a fortune off of internet startups like
Zip2 and PayPal, Fisker's founder Henrik Fisker built a reputation design sleek
sports cars, such as the Aston Martin DB9, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, and
BMW Z8.

Founded in 2007, Fisker rapidly raised a couple
hundred million in venture capital andsecured
a $529M USD loaninitiated by the Bush administration U.S. Department of
Energy and finalized in 2009 under the Obama administration. With a sexy
hybrid, dubbed "Karma", in the works, Fisker was lauded as Tesla's
key rival.

In reality this might have been a bit of an unfair
role to place Fisker in, though it seemed happy enough to play along. Tesla
Motors had been founded four years earlier and was only able to launch its
Roadster after years of delays and losses.

Unsurprisingly, Fisker began to show similar
signs, and some in the public began to write it off as another startup bust.
The release date was originallyslotted
for 2009 at a price of $80,000 USD. Then last year Fisker said it would
be ready to produce 15,000 EVs this year,priced
at $87,500. Clearly it missed that mark.

II. Success at Last

Still, Fisker appears to be turning the corner.
It has a solid relationship withbattery
supplier A123 Systemsin Watertown, Mass. who will be providing it with
production battery packs. By contracting virtually every component of its
vehicle to other companies (e.g. General Motors designs the door handles)
Fisker has cut its development costs from $1B USD to $333M USD, and cut its
development time from 5 years to 2.5 years.

Now it has released more details about the
upcoming launch of the completed vehicle. Production will begin March 21
and vehicles will begin to ship and sell in either March or April. The
final assembly will take place at contractor Valmet Automotive in Finland.

Actual production numbers are likely to be nowhere
near the 15,000 Fisker originally promised; the U.S. government expects 1,000
Karmas to ship this year. Still, the public seems eager to buy the
vehicle -- the government has had to close a pre-order program it was ordering
after over 3,000 customers placed $5,000 USD reservations for the vehicle.

The price point at the vehicle was bumped to
$95,500 USD in December and that appears to be official price it will launch
at.

While Fisker won't make the 15,000 vehicles a year
mark this year -- the point it says it needs to achieve to become profitable --
it's a very real possibility for next year.

III. The Vehicle Itself

The final version of the Karma sports a 50-mile all
electric range and can accelerate for 0 to 62 miles per hour in under 6
seconds. The vehicle has power aplenty. Its twin electric motors
produce 1,300 newton meters (960 lb-ft) of torque, more than the 1,250 N·m
(920 lb-ft) mustered by the Bugatti Veyron.

The vehicle sports an estimated 50-mile
all-electric range. It gets approximately 50 mpg after that, with a
gasoline generator feeding current to the twin electric motors. The total
range is expected to be similar to the 2011 Chevy Volt -- around 350 miles.

Billed as the "world's first luxury plug-in
hybrid electric vehicle" the Karma offers some slick perks, such as a
solar panel roof. Like the roof on the Toyota Prius, it provides power to
the in-cabin electronics. But its higher-quality panels also provide
enough juice to provide 4-5 miles of extra range over the course of a sunny
week of driving.

But probably the biggest thing the Karma has going
for it is looks. The Porsche/Bugatti design heritage is clearly apparent
in this vehicle's gorgeous lines. While the Roadster 2.5 is certainly a
good looking electric vehicle, the Karma may be the best EV on the road,
helping wash away images of the bulbous Volts and LEAFs from the minds of the
public.

IV. The Future

Top venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins
Caulfield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates this month valued Fisker at
$600M USD and gave the company an additional $150M USD in venture capital
funding.

Some expect a initial public offering of stock to
be in the works and arrive shortly after the first run of vehicles finishes.
States Scott Sandell of New Enterprise Associates in an interview with VentureWire,
"[The company has] potentially a huge return in a fairly short order.
… Tesla is worth $3 billion. … The public markets want a few more of these. I
think it could be a blockbuster IPO."

Fisker will face stiff competition from Tesla, but
its lower price, longer range, design heritage, and different category (PHEV v.
BEV) should help differentiate it from its foe.

Fisker, like Tesla hasmass-market
aspirations. It's currently working on something called "Project
Nina", which looks to launch an entry-level luxury sedan priced at $47,000
USD and delivered in higher volume. That vehicle was originally to be
released in 2012, but if the Karma's history is any indication, that date may
slip to 2013 or later.

Still, Fisker seems to have a clear roadmap ahead
of it to achieve profitability and then take the plunge into the red to reach
the mass market. And while it and Tesla have a bitter legal history
(Tesla claimed Fisker stole its technology and used it in the Karma, but lost
the suit), Fisker has Tesla to thank for illustrating the path to success (and
convincing venture capitalists of the validity of that path), in some regard.

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

BUT the key word is GUARANTEED government loans. This is what pisses me off. In other words, if Fisker makes a profit, it's all good, .gov gets paid back and Musk is made even richer. If the $100K toy (it's slow, latest 0-60 times is 5.9, which my $40K 335d is faster) fails, then we EAT the loans and Musk and the other uber-rich board members lose nothing. It's kinda like what the big banks did, bet big, lose, and then the public eats the losses.

What he said...THAT's what I don't like about the "loans" either...so yeah the tax payer can still get screwed in this deal and not in a good way.

as for 0-60 5.9 secs being slow -- that's all a matter of opinion....in a daily (street legal) driver anything sub 6 secs 0-60 is "quick" I'd say....fast I'd say is sub 5 secs and blazing is sub 4 secs...(btw I mean for cars...a crotch rocket that does 4 secs 0-60 isn't that impressive..at least its not impressive to ME put it that way...)

Now if you are talking about an exotic sports car built for speed or a car purpose built for racing...then yeah 0-60 in 5.9 is dog slow....but as a ride to get you to work and back or to the grocery store? under 6 is definitely respectable.

I'm not going to address the government loans, because I agree with you there.

But sooooo much else wrong with your post. Elon Musk is in no way associated with Fisker. In fact, thier only involvement is when Fisker designed the original Tesla models, started his own company, and Musk and Co lost the lawsuit against them. They are competitors.

As for the 0-60 times, that is not the only metric by which to judge an automobile. I could build a car for under $20k that would lap your 335. So what? Your 335 will still be the nicer car. Older Ferrari Testarossas have mid 5sec 0-60 times. Are those "slow" cars worth more than your 335? Absolutely worth every penny more.

Ferarri and Lamborghini created multi-million dollar companies built on selling only hundreds of $100,000+ cars per year.

Fisker isn't building cars like this for you, he is building cars like this for rich people who are willing to pay to put forward a specific image.

These people aren't like you and I because they can afford to buy things like cars on disposable income and view them accordingly. Our old CEO drives a brand new Porsche GT3 in the summer and he drives his old 2007 997 in the snow for fun. Could he have sold the old car and bought an Audi S6 or hired a limo? Sure! But this way he gets to show he has enough cash that he can afford to ruin a super-car.